Blaine S

Has anybody else looked to see if they have found any water behind the centerlocking mechanism? One of my biggest concerns is the corrosion of the c-clip which if it were to fail. The wheels have never been pressure washed, just basic garden hose car wash with nothing out of the ordinary.

Here is a video of what I found, sorry for the shaky iPhone video but it gets the point across.

http://youtu.be/n-n4MNFkvTM

TRAKCAR

How do you take it out?

20C4S

wow, not a good thing. like u said.

911SLOW

That explains the suggested grease everywhere by Porsche’s latest TSB.

What would prevent water from entering there the dust cap? Did you had those in place and were they undamaged?

I remember CarreraGT saying that to remove cup you need to break the vacuum sounds like yours were not doing the job. Or water can enter from other place. I don't know but it looks bad either way.

Maybe you C/L guys have to follow the car museum rule, wash and then drive the car to dry it. : )

mooty

great video documentary
i didn't know those two pieces came off.
when i get the car back, i will take a look.
but that is NOT good.

i think there's going to be a group buy of cup car centerlock or 5 bolt reversion kit soon.

Blaine S

That center assembly containing the spring just slides in and out. The inner c-clip is what holds the three pieces together and if corrosion caused it to fail there wouldn't be any spring tension on the safety locking mechanism.

mooty - I'll title it Centerlock Saga shot by Dr. Shakeycam.

John - the dust caps have only been on and off the rear wheels about four or five times and did not appear to be damaged.

The first time I noticed the water was at Lime Rock when I lost my front two dust caps. I chalked it up to having put a small amount of grease on the rubber o-ring to make removal a bit easier. It was with the front caps off that I noticed one of the locking mechanisms wasn't fully engaged and I took the wheel off and found water.

It might not be a bad idea at the track to have the dust caps off (when it is dry), one so that you don't loose them, and two so that you can confirm that the locking mechanism is fully engaged.

Every time the car has been in the rain or been washed the dust caps have been on. I'm not really sure if my situation is an isolated case, maybe I just blasted the center caps too hard with a hose at some point and some water got in there.

Carrera GT

That looks nasty. Water and bearings rarely make friends.

I just swapped all four wheels and checked every hub and they were bone dry. My car gets pressure-washed at the dealer. I wonder if the tech dried them or what's going on. I didn't think to inspect for corrosion!

That water has to have come from cleaning or wet roads. The drive train gets so hot that as it cools, the air inside contracts and draws moisture into the housings (diffs, joints, prop shafts, boots, hubs.) If there's some peculiar design failure in these new centerlocks, perhaps cars being driven "up to temperature" (not easy on a wet road) and then cooling repeated (such as a middle distance commute in wet weather) can draw in moisture (usually tiny amounts ... little more than "sweat") which can contaminate gear oil and promote corrosion, but the quantity shown in that video is bizarre -- the cup seems to be "full" and excess water has already escaped.

For what it's worth, the surface rust around that circlip is trivial and will not lead to a failure -- the clip is spring steel, which tends to corrode the instant it's not completely sealed from the elements. Still, I wouldn't want to rely on that clip doing its job after a couple of years exposure where that water might be salty (seaside or winter road salt.) It's just not acceptable to have this kind of design flaw -- ten years from now, these cars would be death traps. At the very least, Porsche has a recall on their hands.

KBS911

That is not good at all. I didn't know that the C/L was that easy to disassemble. I've only water washed my car a few times, but I will check this out. Thanks for posting.

Have you driven much in the rain or do you think that it is most probably from the pressure washing?

DavidNR

Discovered this after the first session at a track weekend. Posted on another thread.

This was strictly from washing the car with the caps off. Not advisable unless you blow them out with air also requiring removing the center caps. Not had the problem since.

Blaine S

KBS911 - I think my situation might be from driving in some serious rain storms (I've posted about this with regard to the Corsa system).

Again, I've never used a pressure washer on the wheels.

They are clean and dry and just in case I ordered a new 4-pack of dust caps. When I get them I'll try and see if I they stay dry after a few car washes. Rain storms are something I usually try and avoid but I've been caught out a couple times in the last year and here in New England we can get some serious downpours.

David - I wonder if that is why I lost my front two caps at Lime Rock? Maybe it was steam that caused them to jettison.

Carrera GT

Just driving in the rain shouldn't cause water to enter the hub. Even submerged.

If the car was driven in rain, then left to cool while wet, and this process was repeated twice a day, five days a week through winter (commuting) I could imagine the accumulation of moisture, but this volume is excessive to say the least.

ir_fuel

I live in a country where it rains a lot. Next time I drive through a big downpour I'll check it out on my car afterwards.

TRAKCAR

I will check behind CL next week, if anyone should have corrosion there is should be me. I think the car has done more rain driving then dry so far. And I mean real rain, not Belgium rain.
I just put my dad on a plane, he lives on the Belgium border and could have packed a few sets of brake pads! ;-)

texasviany

I would love a video showing how to take off the wheel, grease the parts and then reinstall following the new service bulletin! Mikymu where are you!!

Bernie930

Blaine, don`t
be alarmed, the main mechanism of these centerlocks works just fine, as long as they are torqued properly. Yes, water can get into the various parts, but there is no bearings affected like some people lead you to believe and is not a issue with regular maintance. There is no huge difference between centerlocks and regular setups, regardless of what certain people lead you too believe,. It`s not that big a deal to convert to 5lug. But why

B